Leicester Riders can all but secure a third consecutive league title tonight as they take on nearest rivals Newcastle Eagles at the Morningside Arena tonight (7.30).

The Eagles’ defeat at Surrey on Sunday means Leicester need six victories from their last nine games to be assured of a fourth title since 2013.

But if they win tonight they will also take the tie-breaker, leaving them just three wins away.

Given half of their final eight games are against the bottom three, that would seem a relative formality.

But coach Rob Paternostro won’t be drawn into talking about winning the title.

He said: “The Eagles are the nearest team to us in the standings, so at this stage of the season wins and losses mean a lot to deciding where you finish, and this game here certainly has that feel to it.

“There are 33 league games and we’ve played 24.

“We have nine to go which is a large chunk of the 33 so the message this last couple of weeks to the guys has been we have a lot left in this season and whatever way the results go, there is still a long way to go.”

Newcastle dropped to a sixth defeat of the campaign, trailing by double figures for much of their game in Surrey, without the injured player-coach Fab Flournoy and Darius Defoe.

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“We’re looking forward to playing the way we play and making the needed adjustments during the game.”

While Newcastle are the league’s best scorers, Riders have reached at least 90 points in eight of their last 10 games, including in last week’s win at Glasgow, despite not being at their best shooting-wise.

Paternostro said, “I thought last week our shooting percentage was lower than it has been in a while, the combination of the floor shooting and free-throw shooting wasn’t one of our highest outputs in regulation, but we have a lot of guys that combine sharing the ball with being aggressive which is nice to see.”